bruise 

drop me on 
the kitchen floor 
i want to be soft &
purple

when i eat apples 
i find the bruise &
bite that part first

caramel brown & sweet 

this is where gravity
hurt us & tucked us
into candy wrappers

there's the bowl
on the wooden dining room
table with the hand fruit 
blinks at each other 

that's where i'll be 
after i trip 
out the window for
the eighth time 

this time i'll be looking
for a way to make my 
skin more honeyed for you

i collected bruises on
my thighs & my forearms
from hitting myself 

the dull pain of my
own knuckles pressed into flesh

sugar grains pouring
like sand from my joints

are we an hourglass?

does time bruise itself
from waiting to out grow itself

the bruises never
formed immediately

haunting blood in the night
as they collected themselves
from the shadow beneath my bed  
from the anatomy of galaxy
from the moon 
pulling the man-hole cover over
her face like a black veil

in the morning i watched 
each purple solar system
oscillating 

gold windowsill glow

marks the shape of 
charm bracelets
wooden beads

lesions writing songs
about each other

what sound does 
a bruise make as it comes
into being?

quiet like the brown
spots on fridge top bananas

will you believe me
that i didn't want to
hurt myself?

are these black holes?

if you fall into me
i promise it will taste
like spiral lollipops 
& molasses

dip table spoons under my skin 

contusion confirmation

we're the peaches
smacking into each other
in the thatched basket

teaching each other
where our skin will give

your face: a tennis ball

i don't bruise as often anymore

i keep myself
away from heights

avoid bowls of fruit

will you be a plum with me?

hide our swelling--
our welts under the guise
of eggplant nebulas 

when your teeth
touch the planet's surface
the juice will 
drip down to your elbow 

you'll realize how malleable 
the surface of earth is

who dropped the earth
from the kitchen table
& made all these continents?

kneel with me
on the back porch

the dirt is
sweet as brown sugar

feed me tablespoons

pluck out my stem